Aloft (film)

Aloft
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Claudia Llosa
Produced by	Ibon Cormenzana Phyllis Laing José María Morales
Written by	Claudia Llosa
Starring	Jennifer Connelly Cillian Murphy Mélanie Laurent
Music by	Michael Brook
Cinematography	Nicolas Bolduc
Edited by	Guillermo de la Cal
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics
Release dates	12 February 2014 (2014-02-12) (Berlin) 28 March 2014 (2014-03-28) (Spain)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	Spain Canada France
Language	English French

Aloft (Spanish: No Llores Vuela) is a 2014 internationally co-produced drama film written and directed by Claudia Llosa, starring Jennifer Connelly, Cillian Murphy, and Mélanie Laurent. The film premiered in competition at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.

Plot

Nana Kunning (Jennifer Connelly), a struggling mother of two young sons, takes her children out into an isolated location. She, along with other parents and children, have come there in order to be seen by the Architect, a faith healer who heals by constructing small delicate structures out of branches and then bringing patients inside them. The Architect works by lottery and Nana's son Gully, who has an inoperable brain tumour, is not chosen to be saved. Nana and the rest of the crowd stay to watch the healing happen, however before the Architect can touch the patient, Nana's son Ivan's falcon crashes into the structure. Nana goes inside to try and lead the falcon outside but the Architect stops her and allows the falcon to break out on its own which destroys the structure. The crowd is furious at Nana and her sons for ruining the healing and refuse to give her a ride unless they abandon the animal. When Ivan finally releases the falcon one of the men shoots it down in front of him.

Sometime later the Architect goes to Nana's job at a hog farm in order to tell her that she healed the blind boy she touched in the structure. When Nana protests she didn't do anything the Architect informs her he never even touched the boy's eyes while she did. Nana ignores the Architect but is surprised when the man who shot her son's falcon down comes to her to plead with her to save his child telling her he can't wait until the Architect's next performance.

Nana goes to the Architect and he begins to train her in creating the structures needed to heal people. In order to fix the legs of a little girl Nana builds a swing. Nana instructs her sons to wait in the car while she heals the girl, however Ivan grows bored and restless and Ivan leaves the car. Unbeknownst to her, he sees his mother on the swing with the girl. Angered, and not understanding what he had witnessed, he takes the car and attempts to drive Gully home, however he crashes the car into a lake. When the ice begins to break Ivan persuades Gully to jump out the window, though unbeknownst to him there is a large hole in the ice directly where Gully jumped. Gully is drowned under the ice.

Nana is crushed by Gully's death and decides to leave for a short time to concentrate on her faith healing.

Decades later a grown up Ivan (Cillian Murphy) is visited by a journalist named Jannia Ressmore (Mélanie Laurent), ostensibly to do an interview on the falcons he now breeds and raises. When Ressmore asks him if he is still in contact with his mother he cuts the interview short. However she leaves him with a video of his mother from the late 90s. When he learns that Ressmore intends to interview his mother Ivan decides to go with her, leaving behind his wife and young child and taking one of his falcons with him. Ressmore and Ivan travel to Nunavut where they find that the road has been blocked by a truck accident and decide to continue on foot. In the dark Ivan begins to hear the ice cracking and stops walking warning Ressmore not to come near him. She does however and takes him by the hand, convincing him to walk step by step as the ice breaking was a hallucination. They are picked up by a local man who takes him to his home and lends them his truck.

On the road Ivan and Ressmore grow close. When they arrive at the checkpoint to Nana's retreat Ivan is upset when he realizes that Ressmore is actually sick and that the real reason she made the trip was so that Nana could heal her. The two fight but when Ressmore tries to leave to see Nana, Ivan sends his falcon out to her so that she stops the car and waits for him to join her.

In the tent where Nana lives Ivan sees her for the first time in decades. While at first he sits back while she's interviewed by Ressmore he eventually asks her how a mother could abandon her son. Nana tells him that the grief from Gully's death was too much.

While the people hoping to be healed by Nana unwrap the stones they have been given to see who has won the lottery to be healed Nana tells a story of a man who fell under ice. While Nana is telling the story Ressmore unwraps the stone she was given and sees it is a green one, which means she has lost the lottery. However Ivan slips a white stone into her hands and Ressmore begins to cry with relief, knowing she will be healed.

Cast

• Jennifer Connelly as Nana Kunning
• Oona Chaplin as Alice
• Cillian Murphy as Ivan
  • Zen McGrath as Young Ivan
• Mélanie Laurent as Jannia Ressmore
• Ian Tracey as Hans
• Peter McRobbie as Ike
• William Shimell as Newman
• Nancy Drake as Old Woman
• Winta McGrath as Gully
• Owen Volk as Baby

Production

Filming took place in Manitoba, Canada.

Reception and box office

Reaction to the film in America was mostly negative, earning a Metacritic score of 34%.

Critical reception in Spain was more positive, with El País calling it "hypnotic and exciting", while also receiving good notices from film magazines Fotogramas and Cinemanía.

In the United States the film had a limited release starting in May 2015. It took in receipts of $53,086 during its run. In Spain it was seen by more than 50,000 people during its theatrical run, grossing a total of €262,355.

External links

• Aloft at IMDb
• Aloft at Rotten Tomatoes